“Something Intangible,” now at Gulfshore Playhouse, falls in the currently popular mode of using thinly disguised historical figures to engage the audience. “The Aviator’s Wife” does this for Anne Morrow Lindbergh. “The Paris Wife” is “about” the Hemingways. As in the case of those books, “Something Intangible” raises questions in one’s mind. How true to life is this story? Does the writer know something we do not? Does it matter?

The characters here are stand-ins for Walt Disney, his brother Roy, and Arturo Toscanini, who conducted and appeared in “Fantasia.” Tony Wiston is the driven creative brother, compelled to continue to surpass his last achievement. Brother Dale handles the finances and attempts to handle Tony. The action is framed as visits by Dale to his psychiatrist, interrupted by scenes of Tony’s and Dale’s ongoing interactions. It is an effective technique and theatrical in a good way. The action mostly occurs during the making of the animated masterpiece “Glorioso” (read “Fantasia”).

“Something Intangible” is about many things: the creative process, the creative personality, ego, Hollywood in the 1940’s, family, duty, denial and inventing one’s own history. Principally it is about Dale and his struggle to find his own core while made to spend his life in the shadow of the great one. He is put in the role of the straight-laced suit-wearing partner who must grovel to investors and play Jiminy Cricket to Tony’s irresponsible, irrepressible Pinocchio. His self-discovery is painful.

Dale is like the elder brother in the prodigal son story — dutiful, responsible, challenged to love his errant brother without resentment or jealousy. He is plagued by personal doubts. Is he really the replaceable bean-counter his brother calls him in his less tolerant moments? Is he responsible and dutiful of his own wishes, or does he simply lack Tony’s fire? Is he simply afraid, or too dull, to stray from rectitude?

These questions are apparently resolved at the conclusion of the play, but one is left wondering whether this will not be an ongoing tension. These are likely to be lifelong struggles. Dale, with his psychiatrist’s help, gains the courage to face them with self-knowledge, love and a perseverance that is no less heroic for being mundane.

It would be interesting to know how closely the story hews to history, but it is not important. They play on its own merits is provocative and entertaining. Only time will tell if this is a great play. The experience Friday night was of an intense and powerful work.

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of Gulfshore Playhouse productions is the casting. It is always a pleasure to observe the way this company finds professional actors, willing to come to Naples and rehearse on a tight schedule, who suit and grasp the roles as well as they do. Everyone here is excellent. Shawn Fagan is a live wire as the mercurial Tony, alternately appealing, childish and tyrranical. Ian Merrill Peakes is sympathetic as Dale, never falling into a stereotype of the uptight accountant. Charlotte Booker as the psychiatrist and Jack Tobin as a studio artist inhabit their roles. Peter Reznikoff is wonderful as the conductor. I have met too many “great” artists like this one. Reznikoff nails the imperiousness, the phoniness, the greed and the cunning.

With an unfamiliar play like this one, I always wonder whether it is more or less difficult for the actors to get a bead on the characters, not having seen any other actor play the roles. Under director Cody Nickell’s guidance, these actors are as confident as if this were as much studied classic. Their portrayals are fresh and spontaneous. Although none have performed at Gulfshore Playhouse before, one feels as if one knows them, as if they are part of the family.

“Something Intangible” and the earlier “Venus in Fur” make me eager for the rest of the Gulfshore Playhouse season.